Lone protester sentenced to ten years in prison

September 22, 2014

Phayul, September 19, 2014: A Chinese court has sentenced a Tibetan monk to ten years in prison after being held in a detention for over a year.

Lobsang Gendun, 21, a monk of the Drongsar Monastery, staged a lone protest disrupting official celebrations marking the 92nd anniversary of the establishment of the Communist Party of China on July 1, 2014 in Pashoe region of the traditional Tibetan province of Kham. Gendun shouted slogans calling for long life of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and for freedom for Tibet.

Last week, Gendun called his relatives to inform that he had been sentenced to ten years in prison by a court in Chamdo. However, he gave no information about where he was locked up to serve his prison term.

Following his arrest, Chinese authorities raided Gendun’s house and discovered pictures of the Tibetan spiritual leader His Holiness the Dalai Lama whom China reviles as "monk in wolf's robes."

Earlier this year, Chamdo court summoned Gendun’s parent ordering them to advice their son to confess to his crimes but he refused to confess to any crimes and instead pleaded not guilty.